The Position
Cole Motor delivered 213 apartments on the former Marion County Jail II site at about $84 million. The public side is $15.5 million of tax-increment financing and a demolition the city funded at a budget of no more than $5 million. The record supports the demolition. The record leaves the size of the financing open.
What the City Bought in 2022
The city selected the 1820 Ventures proposal on 3 August 2022 at a price of $120 million. Third Street Ventures bid $77 million for about 150 units in Jail II and office space across the Arrestee Processing Center. TWG Development bid $63.6 million for about 200 units and three floors above the processing center (IBJ, 3 August 2022).
The city chose the most expensive of the three bids. The winning scope carried 110 to 140 apartments in Jail II, a 60,000-square-foot concert venue from the operators of The Vogue, about 30,000 square feet of co-working space, a Ball State University early childhood center for up to 300 children and a Ball State career pathway center.
The recorded outcome is smaller. The venue left the plan for a separate parcel. IBJ reported the revised project in March 2025 at $84 million, 213 units, 13,000 square feet of retail and early childhood education space, and 1820 took first occupancy in late August 2026.
The Terms the City Wrote
The TIF carried a condition on the rents. The developer had to price 10 percent of the units for households at 50 percent or less of the area median income, or 5 percent for households at 30 percent (The Indiana Lawyer, 15 November 2022). Jeremy Stephenson said that month that the path had not been chosen.
Catalyst Opportunity Funds, which invested $8.9 million of equity in the project, records the outcome: 5 percent of the 213 units deed restricted below 30 percent of the area median income. Five percent of 213 units comes to about 11 apartments.
The land moved at $5.07 million for Jail II and $2.28 million for the processing center, the two offers 1820 planned to make (IBJ, 3 August 2022).
The Demolition the City Funded
The city held both buildings. They had been correctional facilities since 1996, and the correctional functions moved to the Community Justice Campus in Twin Aire in 2022. A 62,000-square-foot portion of Jail II came down, the eastern wing that had been used for storage rather than for inmates.
American Structurepoint studied the space. The state and the National Park Service recommended demolition (The Indiana Lawyer, 9 January 2024). The Department of Metropolitan Development put the budget at no more than $5 million. The city carried the defect and the site clearance at its own cost.
The Cost History
The proposal entered the record at $120 million in 2022. In January 2024 the developer put Cole Motor alone at about $85 million and said that combining it with the separate entertainment venue would bring the company "very close" to the original $120 million (The Indiana Lawyer, 9 January 2024). The August 2026 figure for the campus reads about $84 million.
The venue now stands as a separate project on an undisclosed parcel, to be built and owned by 1820. The revised campus scope carries the $84 million figure.
Where the Record Holds
The demolition is the part of the public spend the record explains. The city owned the buildings. The structural defect sat in a storage wing. The developer's engineers studied it, and the two bodies with purview over historic buildings recommended removal. The city paid no more than $5 million to clear a liability it carried.
The affordability condition is the second part, and it runs with the TIF. The developer that took the $15.5 million priced 5 percent of the units below 30 percent of the area median income, and the restriction is on the deed.
Where the Record Is Open
The council committee approved $15.5 million against a $120 million project. The campus landed at about $84 million after the venue and the co-working space left the plan. No fetched source shows what the package would have been against the smaller scope.
The public arithmetic is a starting point. The $15.5 million in bonds plus a demolition budget of no more than $5 million comes to about $20.5 million. The land offers of $5.07 million and $2.28 million return about $7.35 million.
The Terms Left Unwritten
Three items sit outside the record. The final capital stack by share is not published. The terms of the TIF bonds and the assessed value the increment is drawn against are not published. A lease-up figure for the 213 units is not published.
The restriction is the part a reader can price. The city bought a recorded condition on 5 percent of 213 units, about 11 apartments, for a $15.5 million commitment and a cleared site.